Panthers on the prowl

By Justin Robertson
DANDENONG Panthers have marched into this year’s Premier Cricket grand final against Frankston-Peninsula, after a hard-fought four-wicket win against Carlton at Princes Park over the weekend.
After sending Carlton into bat and being set 182 for victory, the Panthers were made to work extremely hard for their runs, as they overcame some nerve-wracking moments to eventually earn the right to battle it out for this year’s premiership cup.
For Panthers skipper, Darren Dempsey – who has never won a cricket premiership – it will be his first grand final appearance for his club and he can’t wait to get out there tomorrow (Friday).
“It’s a bit surreal. It still feels like part of the normal cricket season but I guess there are only two teams still training – the rest aren’t,” he said. “I’m very excited, it’s what you play cricket for and it’ll be an exciting time for the club if we can win – it’ll be two flags in the past four years.”
Victorian speedster James Pattinson led from the front with bat and ball and, Dempsey said rightfully earned his man of the match title.
He took 3/43 from 21 overs and stood up with the bat with a controlled 50 not out from 129 deliveries.
“Pattinson was brilliant,” Dempsey said. “He came in with a good attitude and had a crack from start to finish and deserved his haul.”
Dempsey said making this year’s grand final was a fitting result, after sitting in second place for a large portion of the year.
“At the start of the year we had changes to coaching staff and players and would have been happy with just missing out on finals, but then after the first eight rounds we were 10 points clear on top, so it would have been disappointing to miss out,” he said.
“As it turned out we did scrape through and always had the belief that anything can happen in finals.”
Demspey’s mob will face an inform Frankston-Peninsula side that has knocked off St.Kilda and Geelong – two teams considered flag favourites.
But, the Panthers have also been in rare touch: they defended 180 on a flat wicket against Camberwell in a do-or-die match to reach the finals; Butterfield ripped through Casey-South Melbourne in the quarter final, taking 5/29, as he bowled them to an 85-run victory; and, against Carlton, Pattinson’s double heroics with bat and ball ensured a ticket in this year’s premiership match.
Australian Test bowler Peter Siddle is still in doubt for the final, but Dempsey is satisfied the team from last week that battled hard against Carlton can do the job this weekend at Melbourne University’s main oval.
“We’ll definitely go in confident – you have to, it’s a grand final,” he said. “We’ve played three really good games in the last three weeks, and now we need to play one more.”>>>See scoreboard Page 61